John J. Crittenden, a Senator of Kentucky, delivered this speech, which addressed the debate over Kansas Territory's admission to the Union under the Lecompton Constitution, on the floor of the Senate. Crittenden, himself a Southerner, contended that there was enough evidence to indicate that the Constitution that had been submitted was not well supported by the citizens of Kansas Territory, and proposed an idea which would become known as the "Crittenden Amendment" which called for the ratification of the whole Lecompton Constitution by a popular vote in the Territory before Kansas could be admitted as a state under it.

Kansas Memory

Kansas Historical Society

John Jordan Crittenden, speech on the Admission of the State of Kansas - p. 1